Tag Archives: steve cropper

“Nashville Music Industry: Impact, Contribution and Cluster Analysis,” by the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce and the Music City Music Council?

Sure, I read the report, and even understand some of it.

I’m a music guy, not a number guy. Folks who trumpet music education assert that comprehension of music leads to greater grasp of mathematical skills. I’m either proof that such a notion is incorrect, or a fellow whose math has gone from woeful to pitiful, through the power of music. Let’s go with the latter.

But, from what I understand of the report in question, the deal is that a whole lot of music is being made in Nashville, and sold from Nashville. Our density of music industry activity is 10 times greater than that of New York or Los Angeles, and even greater than that of Atlanta, Austin or New Orleans.

You can’t swing a cat in Nashville without hitting a singer, songwriter, musician, manager, bus driver, publishing executive or other member of the music industry. You also can’t swing a cat in Nashville without breaking animal cruelty laws. Really, you can’t swing a cat in Nashville. Or at least you shouldn’t.Continue reading →

Memphis R&B guitar legend Steve Cropper - who now resides in Nashville - was part of an all-star salute to Memphis soul music at the White House on Tuesday night. Above, you'll see him backing up Justin Timberlake on "(Sittin' On) The Dock Of the Bay," a song Cropper co-wrote with Otis Redding. The pair's performance even had the President and First Lady - seated front and center - singing along. Here's the full report from the AP:

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama said he'd been looking forward to a White House celebration of Memphis soul music for one reason.

"Let's face it, who does not love this music?" he asked Tuesday, opening the night's concert in an East Room bathed in amber light and transformed by the addition of a stage and backup musicians.

"These songs get us on the dance floor," Obama said. "They get stuck in our heads. We go back over them again and again. And they've played an important part in our history."

Memphis, Tenn., was segregated in the 1960s, but blacks and whites came together despite the institutional racism to create a soulful blend of gospel and rhythmic blues music that sought to "bridge those divides, to create a little harmony with harmony," Obama said.

He noted that two of the night's guests, Booker T. Jones and Steve Cropper, helped form one of the city's first integrated bands.

"They weren't allowed to go to school together. They weren't always allowed to travel or eat together," the president said. "But no one could stop them from playing music together."

President Barack Obama speaks during the In Performance at the White House in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, April 9, 2013, a program for a celebration of Memphis Soul Music. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Duane Eddy performs during the “String Fever” concert Wednesday night at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center’s Polk Theater. The show was a benefit for the Tennessee State Museum.

It’s tough to be astonished these days.

And tougher to be astonished by guitar players in Nashville. That’s like being astonished by Green Hills traffic, or by the empty-ish upper deck at late-season Titans football games.

Even tougher still for guitar players to be astonished by guitar players. Mystery is astonishment’s pre-requisite, and there’s no mystery in a guitar: six strings, some wood and steel, some electronics to make sure everyone can hear. We all know how it’s done, and in Music City — or “Guitar Town,” as it’s sometimes called — it’s done by most everyone who waits on a table, valet parks a car or smiles from a billboard.

But astonishment was the order of the evening at Wednesday night’s “String Fever” concert at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center’s Polk Theater. Country Music Hall of Famer and master guitarist Vince Gill served as host, but spent most of the night at side stage, watching and listening like a 4-year-old gazing at a shopping mall Santa as mind-bending guitarist after mind-bending guitarist took the stage.

First up was Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Duane Eddy, rock’s first solo instrumental star. He capped a two-song set with his 1958 smash “Rebel Rouser,” playing what must have been the lowest E note on the planet and offering lessons in tone, twang and melodic economy.

Then Rory Hoffman and Richard Smith came on, charged with following a legend and well-aware that the majority of the crowd was wondering, “Who are Rory Hoffman and Richard Smith?”

Well, Richard Smith is a finger-picking virtuoso, in the Chet Atkins mold. And Hoffman is a blind multi-instrumentalist who often plays local venues and who happens to have re-imagined the way that a guitar can be played. He lays it in his lap, plays it overhand, kind of like a piano, and finds fluidity, chordal voicings and textures that Keith Urban has called “frighteningly original.”

Hoffman and Smith drew spontaneous applause mid-song in “Autumn Leaves,” transforming an old war horse into something new and gorgeous, and drawing a standing ovation and subsequent encore.

“I’m so glad I write songs,” Gill said after Hoffman and Smith exited. “I just went and told every guitar player back there, ‘We’ve been doing it wrong all these years.’ ”

Hoffman was the evening’s shocker for many in the audience, but there was nothing anti-climactic about the performances that followed.

John Jorgenson, who recently moved from Nashville after 12 years here, played Django Reinhardt-style gypsy jazz, jammed with slide guitar ace (and former Allman Brother) Jack Pearson and fronted a rock ’n’ roll power trio for a trippy take on George Harrison’s “Love You To.”

Colin Linden fused Texas, Mississippi and Piedmont-style acoustic blues, and then he and the Nashville-born Pearson amped up and turned TPAC into a juke joint. Andy Reiss of Grammy-nominated band The Time Jumpers and longtime session ace/“Grand Ole Opry” musical director Steve Gibson offered “Sugarfoot Rag” in tribute to Hank Garland, who Chet Atkins cited as the greatest, most complete of all Nashville guitarists.

Steve Wariner talked eloquently about his friend and hero Atkins, then played in Atkins’ style, with complex chordal maneuverings and a thumb that banged the low strings like a drummer whacks a snare. Then Wariner played a bluesy “Guitar Talk,” scatting like George Benson, whose prime influence was ... wait for it ... Hank Garland.

And Grammy-winning Larry Carlton — Gill called him “The guitar player’s guitar player” — played jazz that was as tuneful and accessible as it was sophisticated.

After more than three hours of this, Gill was supposed to cap the show. Instead of trying to top what had already been played, or bringing everyone back for a chaotic group number, Gill came out alone, holding his 1942 Martin D-28. It was his first fine guitar, purchased when he was a teenager, with every cent he’d saved in his young life, and it’s on display as part of the Tennessee State Museum's “The Guitar: An American Love Story” exhibit.

It’s been the constant in Gill’s life for decades, and Wednesday he used it to provide a plaintive benediction, singing a song he wrote about the instrument called “This Old Guitar and Me.”

And then folks filed out, astonished to be astonished. It was late by then, nearing midnight. But Green Hills traffic was a breeze.

Legendary guitarist/songwriter Steve Cropper has put together a full-length tribute to his favorite band, The "5" Royales.

Dedicated is due out July 5 (update: the release date was moved to August 9) on 429 Records, and it will feature guest shots from Lucinda Williams, Sharon Jones, Brian May, Steve Winwood, Bettye LaVette, B.B. King, Shemekia Copeland, Delbert McClinton, John Popper and others.

A founding member of Booker T. & The MG's, Cropper's guitar work is an integral element in southern soul classics from Otis Redding, Sam & Dave and many others. He co-wrote hits including Redding's "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay," "Knock on Wood" and "In the Midnight Hour."

"I've already had four or five careers, and I'm lucky to be alive," Cropper said in a statement. "If I can educate these young ears as to where the music started, because they're always asking, and if I can get them interested in The '5' Royales, I've done something."

Click to see a gallery of photos from Jerry Lee Lewis' performance in Nashville on April 17, 2011 (this image: Shelley Mays/The Tennessean).

Record Store Day at Third Man Records was supposed to culminate with a big outdoor throwdown from rock icon Jerry Lee Lewis -- unfortunately, blustery weather put a pause on those plans; fortunately, Lewis and his all-star band got a beautiful, performance-friendly Sunday afternoon.

Mayor Karl Dean presented White with the first annual Music City Ambassador Award Saturday morning at White’s Third Man Records building in downtown Nashville. The award, voted on by the Nashville Music Council, honors the Nashville resident who has brought the most international attention to the Nashville music industry over the past year.

White was a man of few words during the ceremony, but thanked the city and the mayor, calling the award “an incredible honor.”

Mayor Dean told The Tennessean that among the candidates for the inaugural award, White was the “overwhelming choice.”

“I think he’s special for a variety of reasons," Dean said. "His music spans over several different genres. He made a decision to come to Nashville after he achieved a great deal of success. He came here with all of his creative energy, plus this entrepreneurial spirit, and he is invested in the community.”

The ceremony, held on Third Man's front loading dock, had a large public audience, as hundreds of fans were lined up outside to purchase the label’s special releases in celebration of Record Store Day. The event was billed as a block party, with local food vendors and vinyl records blasting from the speakers of the Third Man “Rolling Record Store” truck.

The day’s festivities were to be capped off with an outdoor concert from rock ’n’ roll legend Jerry Lee Lewis. Weather conditions, however, forced the concert to be postponed until 1 p.m. Sunday.

Lewis still performed Saturday afternoon at a private gathering for friends and family inside the Third Man building.

The 75-year-old whipped through a lively set of his classics and R&B standards, including “Drinkin’ Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee,” “Georgia On My Mind” and “Sweet Little 16.” His ace four-piece band featured longtime bandleader Ken Lovelace, famed soul guitarist Steve Cropper, session drumming great Jim Keltner and Dead Weather/Greenhornes bassist Jack Lawrence.

Lewis closed his speedy set with a pair of signature tunes -- “Great Balls of Fire” and “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” -- before bidding farewell to a very enthusiastic audience.

“What we’re doing here is all new to me,” he said with a smile. “I just started in the business.”

When Jack White plans a Record Store Day celebration, he really pulls out all the stops.

The April 16 shindig at White's Third Man Records is scheduled to feature rock 'n' roll icon Jerry Lee Lewis, Lewis' press folks announced Monday, and fans can expect a White-produced Lewis record to be made during the visit, too.

For the performance/recording, Lewis will be backed by an all-star band: legendary guitarist Steve Cropper and drummer Jim Keltner, with White's Dead Weather/Raconteurs compatriot Jack Lawrence on bass. The recording is expected to go on sale within weeks of the event.

Other special Third Man treats planned for Record Store Day: a new single from Karen Elson, featuring a cover of Lou Reed's "Vicious" backed with Elson original "In Trouble With the Lord" (the release will be on clear vinyl with hand-inserted, peach-colored rose petals locked inside); two White Stripes reissues -- their first release, "Let’s Shake Hands"/"Look Me Over Closely," and second, "Lafayette Blues"/"Sugar Never Tasted So Good"; and the debut offering from Danger Mouse and Daniele Luppi's Rome collaboration with Jack White and Norah Jones, "Two Against One" with "Black." (Those Rome tunes will also appear on the full-length, due out May 17.)

Fans will be able to pick up those releases at Third Man and other independent record stores.

Jerry Lee Lewis' show is set to close out Third Man's Record Store Day celebration -- doors open for that show at 4 p.m., the show beginning at 5. Tickets run $30, and are expected to go on sale at noon on Tuesday, April 5 via Third Man's physical location in Nashville (623 7th Ave. S.) and at ThirdManRecords.com.

Third Man's overall Record Store Day festivities begin at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, April 16.

Click Cropper's image above to see a gallery of photos from Thursday night's showcase at the Hard Rock Cafe, and check back here at Tennessean.com/music this weekend for more photos from the last days of the festival.

The event is set for 6 p.m. April 5 at Cabana restaurant in Nashville. In addition to an evening’s performances, beer, wine, creative southern cuisine and a silent auction are all included in the ticket price.

Tickets are $50 per person or $1,000 for a VIP cabana for 10 and are available by logging on to www.cabananashville.com. Donations can also be made directly to the Jayne Rogovin Medical Fund at any SunTrust Bank.